Lottery jackpots surpass $1 billion, as Californians have 3 ways to become a millionaire (or not)

Maybe this time will be different. (Or maybe not.) The drawing for the $607-million Mega Millions jackpot is Friday, and the drawings for the $443-million Powerball jackpot and the $14-million SuperLotto Plus jackpot are both Saturday.

The odds of winning are typically more than 300 million to 1 — but still people continue to line up for their chance to dream. And they can dream big with the total winnings for all three games topping the $1-billion mark.

There have been no winners in the Mega Millions game since two jackpot tickets were purchased in December, according to the California Lottery. The game is played across 45 states, but both winning tickets were sold at a Chevron gas station in Encino.

“While this is incredibly unusual and interesting, it’s not unheard of,” California Lottery spokesperson Carolyn Becker said at the time.

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Last year, 10 tickets were Mega Millions jackpot winners. So far this year, no ticket has had all six numbers. For just the eighth time in Mega Millions history, the jackpot passed $600 million after nobody matched all six numbers in Tuesday’s drawing.

Powerball, which is also played across multiple states, has made several Californians richer. The top three winning tickets in the game’s history were purchased in California, according to the Multi-State Lottery Assn. Three winners — from California, Florida and Tennessee — split a $1.5-billion jackpot in 2016. Then in October 2023, a winning ticket scored a $1.7-billion jackpot, and a month later another ticket sold in California won $2 billion.

Then there is California’s own Super Lotto Plus, which did not see any winners drawn Wednesday. There were five tickets sold that matched five winning numbers, which netted those winners $6,500 apiece, officials said.

Although the lottery is less of a numbers game and more about luck, participants should keep in mind an important figure: 41 million. As in, the odds of matching all five Super Lotto Plus numbers plus the Mega number are 41 million to 1.

A portion of the money generated from lottery tickets purchased in California provide funding for public education.